Dallas Bragg argues that relapse cycles trap people in stagnation. Instead of measuring recovery only by abstinence, he suggests celebrating small daily wins to build momentum. He pushes back against addicts' black-and-white thinking that says you're either completely sober or a total failure.
When you're stuck in a relapse cycle, you're not going anywhere. There's one way to turn it on its side and make it a spiral. That spiral comes from redefining what is success in your recovery journey. If your only measure of success is abstinence, you're missing out on the wins and the dopamine spikes you can get from all of the small victories of your day. When your only measure of success is abstinence, you're going to continue to be disappointed in yourself and you're going to continue to see your recovery and yourself as a failure. As addicts, we love black and white thinking, right? We're either sober or we're not. We're either success or failure. But if you can see the gradient shades in between where you are and where you're going and celebrate in that today, that will take you from this to this.
